Because it's the same location as SA. Rockstar even called it Los Santos in their press release for the trailer. They even showed the Vinewood sign in the trailer, so yet again, same area, same name, new look.

Yeah but how can you change a look of somewhere and call it the same name when the places look completly differen't. I'd understand if they added a few things here and there but it dosen't even have the same lay out

Well the original San Andreas was set in the early 90's, this is probably in modern time. 20 years can make a big difference. I live in NYC, places that were here 20 years ago are still called the same thing, but look completely different than they did back then. Even in the trailer, you could see key landmarks that were in SA on PS2 but look completely different. Rockstar would be stupid to use the exact same map layout.

Assume this is real, even parts of this map look very similar to the one in the original SA.

You are whining. Unless you've been missing for the past 4 years you will have noticed that GTA 4 was liberty city which looked nothing like the liberty city in GTA 3. Why would you buy a carbon copy of GTA:SA? Sure it would be good to reminisce on old memories of a great game, but I for one would like to see a new story played out in a city LIKE SA but not exactly the same.

If you believe these screenshots are real you should consider thinking again. Also, If you believe that this is an "alpha" version of the game, you do realize multi-platform games as well as exclusive games, are tested on computers because it is much easier and flexible to change codes on the game, rather than having to burn it on a disk and then play it on a console. This is FAKE AS HELL. It would be such a waste of time for someone especially like Rockstar to start making copies of their alpha version for no reason, if anything it would be the beta version of the game that gets tested on consoles, and this shitty GTA4 Mod is not even close to a "beta" looking type game. So please, open your eyes and understand this article is fake and is just looking for hits. Also I like how this person who made this fake design, left "waypoint on" and "legend on" when infact nothing is on. Another thing, on the third picture, the roads don't match up with what the character is standing on, so another fail there.

As Whitelightning also pointed out they did this to GTA4 aswell, I'd understand if they built new things over the course of the time frame of the two games but they've added new stuff which would be impossible to add.

They may aswell said it's set in SA but in a brand new and differen't city. I think they're just using the name to get people more hyped up

Are you a child? is it really that hard to understand why it looks the way it does in GTA5 R* now have the power to create LS the way they truly envisioned it to look. It now looks more realistic and it'll be far more detailed and larger than the original LS.

The only reason SA looked the way it did on the PS2 was because of hardware limitations, and their design choices were based on those limitations.

They have far more freedom now so why would they gimp themselves by making a HD version of LS when they can recreate the whole map and make it look & 1feel 100x's better?

WhiteLightning's getting so many disagrees because his comment makes no sense.

So you never played GTAIV? I don't remember Liberty City looking quite they much like New York in GTAIII. They can do whatever they want. It's a semi fictional map in a virtual world of their own creation. They have the opportunity to create these maps with the vision they likely had all the time, now that the systems can handle it. What would you expect? You think GTA IV should have had that same tiny, non detailed map? Why are you making this out to be bigger than it is?

I know GTA:4 got rated highly, but i honestly dont think it was half as fun as San Andreas or Liberty City. I really hope they manage to find that feeling they had in the Ps2 games for this one. Cant wait.

Well I hope it's fake. Stupid rumors raised my expectations really high and if this was the real map I'd be very disappointed. Just seems underwhelming. Los Santos in this map looks about the same size as the one in SA and the country area looks pointless. Like they just slapped 3 little random towns with long roads to get to each one. Highly doubt Rockstar would be dumb enough to make a map like that.

is probably in alpha, do menus even care at that point? even the map looks plain... there is a reason why developers never show alpha footage, people always think that will be the final product and it isn't.

If that's a fake, it's a damn well done fake. Part of me is skeptical because the city doesn't look nearly as big as Liberty City, and there's just not many roads connecting the rural areas which could make getting around a pain. But if I had to put money on it, I'd say it's legit. Someone would have to be pretty talented to fake that map and screenshot.

The city looks way too crowded. Most of it is just small squares stuffed together. The country side looks way too small and doesn't have enough roads to even seem legit. Also look at that guy, especially the face and how bland he looks. Also the color palette doesn't look nearly as bright and vibrant as it does in the trailer IMO. I say that this just a good GTA IV mod.

A nice comment in that site that might help some as so far it was proved that the in-game shot is fake and not the map:

"Now, the in-game screenshot is definitely fake. However I am quite convinced that the map is somewhat legitimate. I have made some notes on the map, since many of the roads and areas on the map match up with the trailer. http://i42.tinypic.com/14uy... Also, analysis on the other two images: http://errorlevelanalysis.c...http://errorlevelanalysis.c... I also did I test with the error level analysis website, I took a screenshot of part of my desktop and uploaded it. Without editing it whatsoever, it still showed up with the odd colours. Implying it has been edited when it has not. You can see it here: http://errorlevelanalysis.c... For all of you under the impression that the map seems smaller compared to San Andreas it isn’t. The scale is absolutely huge when comparing areas on the map with scenes in the trailer."